Local News

Fort Morgan high school student runs unique breeding operation

By Stephanie Alderton

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
02/09/2016 10:04:25 PM MST

Tutankhamun the chinchilla peers out of a dust bath in Mikayla Klimper's home. Chinchillas' fur is so thick that they have trouble getting dry after being wet, so they have to bathe in dust instead of water. (Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times)

What is a chinchilla?

* Chinchillas are large rodents native to the Andes mountains in Chile.

* They are known as the softest animals in the world, with 5,200 hairs per follicle. As a result, they are often bred for their pelts, although hunting wild chinchillas is illegal since they're listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as "critically endangered." Other owners, like Klimper, breed them as pets.

* They have a long gestation period and are born with fur, unlike rabbits or other common rodents.

* They eat bark, dried flowers and fiber-heavy pet foods, but any kind of sugar can make them sick.

* Chinchillas usually live to be about 10 to 15 years old.

Mikayla Klimper with her first chinchilla, Ellie, who she got when she was 9. Ellie is now 10 years old. (Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times)

Mikayla Klimper works in the breeding industry, like many Morgan County residents, but the animals she breeds are a bit unusual.

The 18-year-old Fort Morgan High senior has been breeding chinchillas since she was 12. She currently keeps 19 in a basement room, after "down-sizing" from 28. But this year she's headed off to college, so care of the super-soft, South American rodents will fall to her parents.

"When I was little, I always loved animals," Klimper said. "I would go to the pet store, and we knew each other, so I would get to pet all the animals—except the chinchillas...I think I'm just stubborn. I decided I wanted a chinchilla."

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Her opportunity came when her neighbor, who owned a chinchilla named Eli, left for college and offered to give it to her. She was 9 at the time, and it was the beginning of a lifelong obsession.

Unlike dogs or cats, chinchillas aren't exactly ubiquitous in the U.S. Even though several thousand-head breeding operations exist even in Colorado, many of Klimper's neighbors don't know much about the rodents. This became clear early in her chinchilla-raising career, when "Eli" turned out to be an "Ellie."

When she started to buy breeding animals, at the age of 12, she had to learn several things the hard way. In the first year, her animals had three stillborn babies. Another needed a Caesarean section, but when she drove it to the teaching hospital at the University of Colorado in Fort Collins, the veterinarian had never seen a chinchilla before.

"This is one of the top vet schools, and he's never seen one before?" Klimper remembered thinking. "And he's going to perform surgery on her?"

That chinchilla died, but Klimper hand-raised her surviving baby, and now, she says she knows enough to guide the local vets when she takes her animals to see them.

A breeding chinchilla, "Luci's" name is short for Lucifer, because, as Mikayla Klimper says, "She's a demon." Klimper made each of her chinchillas' name tags herself out of aluminum. (Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times)

But through it all, she said, she had the support of the Colorado chinchilla-breeding community, which is "very active." When she was struggling to find the money to buy more breeding animals, the Empress Chinchilla Breeders Cooperative, which has a chapter in Colorado, gave her some on credit. Now her business is self-sustaining—or at least it was, until she started selling off her animals to prepare for college.

This fall Klimper plans to attend Mesa University in Grand Junction, where she'll study social work. She's not too worried about leaving her chinchillas home. Although her mother is allergic to them, her dad has picked up her affection for the animals. And after she's done with school, she plans to resume her breeding operation.

Chinchillas aren't Klimper's only hobby. She's also involved in the Lads 'n' Lassies 4-H club in Fort Morgan, and she does quite a bit of dog-sitting. But between cleaning cages, feeding and watering the animals, bathing them and keeping an eye on their pregnancies, chinchillas take up much of her time.

It's all worth it, though, because her animals have provided her with some long-term friendships. Ellie, for example, is now 10 years old and still thriving, although Klimper said she's a bit shy.

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